APAC Partner Forum

On 17th October we held our annual Partner Forum in Melbourne. The event was kindly hosted at Deakin University’s Melbourne Burwood Campus and the APAC team were joined by partners from as far afield as Japan.

The day was filled with thought-provoking sessions and great discussions led by a diverse range of speakers and industry experts. Keynote speaker Professor Shane Hearn, CEO at First Nations Media Australia (FNMA) and former Pro Vice Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy at the University of Adelaide shared his approach to ‘Empowering Indigenous Education: Fostering Inclusivity and Cultural Sensitivity in Higher Education and Online Learning.’ 

Amongst other takeaways, he also shared IndigiTube with us, a digital platform that aims to amplify First Nations voices, create positive change, and address key social, cultural, and political issues affecting Indigenous communities.

Peter Reed, Vice President of Degree Programmes at FutureLearn, shared our vision and roadmap in his presentation titled ‘Charting the Future: Exploring the Global Online Degree Landscape’. Peter captivated the audience, not just with his outline of the global online education market and the exciting direction of the company with our multimillion-dollar investment, but also with his Liverpudlian accent and attempts at Aussie slang. ‘No worries’ was a staple and ‘hooroo’ (goodbye) became a favourite during his trip down under.

After lunch Anip Sharma and Dr Ant Bagshaw from L.E.K. Consulting began their presentation on ‘Meeting the Needs of the Future Student: Lessons from the Market’. The duo highlighted that there is “substantial short - and long-run demand for high quality relevant learning” with learning applications in high demand. They noted that the Universities Accord may further “stimulate both demand and supply in lifelong learning to meet the economies needs and increase equity”. As a closing statement, the duo were clear that the task now would be for institutions to “balance serving upskilling millennials, meeting mobile-first Gen Z needs and preparing for Gen Alpha.”

Wendy Palmer, Director, Global Studio, Deakin Learning Futures at Deakin University

shared a case study from the university’s experience during their time on the FutureLearn platform. Her presentation on ‘Non-Linear Student Journeys For Emerging Markets And Models’ not only demonstrated that learners want the flexibility to be able to study completely online and start anytime, but it also showed the volume of learners who started out on the platform and ended up enrolling in degree programmes at Deakin.

Following the case study, Kimberley Salafia, Director Strategy and Jenni Saville, Partnerships Manager from FutureLearn’s APAC team, led an engaging interactive session. Colleagues were treated to a series of live polls and questions through Mentimeter during their session on ‘Unlocking Student Potential: Maximising Your Educational Relationship’. 

Attendees voted microcredentials as the type of offering they were most interested in developing on the platform and were interested in hearing about new product offerings such as affiliate marketing and lead generation, particularly for international learners.

The final session of the day was a roundtable discussion facilitated by Helen Cameron,

Executive Director, Global Engagement & Partnerships at GUS Education Australia and  FutureLearn’s Brett Carazzo, Director, Growth (APAC). 

Attendees discussed a variety of topics and presented back to the room on International Institute Collaboration. Out of these conversations came the idea of having a networking group for FutureLearn partners to work, share knowledge and collaborate on future content delivery. This is now being developed on the partner site and will be shared with colleagues soon. 

We’ve already begun planning our next UK-based partner forum for 2024. Keep an eye out and watch this space for more details to come.